„You killed her!” SolHi shouted at DooSan, drowning in tears. He, even if he heard very well what SolHi told him, didn’t react at all. DooSan just stood like a stone statue, staring in front as though he saw a ghost. A reaction that drove SolHi crazy. She grabbed him by the clothes right away and, after she started to shake him, she yelled at him again, „If not you, she would have lived now. I hope you’re happy now, Han DooSan. You finally got what you wanted.” Then, pushing him hard from her, she passed by him. She went not alone, but with Yoon Suk, who’d been the one who forced SolHi to leave DooSan alone, heading toward the ambulances that were stopped at the entrance of the bridge eventually.

Only then DooSan dared to watch behind them. He saw the water dripping off their bodies because they were still wet after taking the victim out of the river. Yes, they finally took Shi Yon out of the river, but the paramedics could only pinpoint the hour of her death… nothing more.

While heading toward the ambulances, moving further and further from DooSan, Yoon Suk told SolHi, „Sombe, I think you’re wrong this time. Prosecutor Han isn’t to blame for what has just happened.”

SolHi said nothing. She only allowed him to put a towel on her shoulders. Then, they both wrapped their bodies in blankets to warm them up. Thus, they had time to think about what happened to the victim. Yet, while Yoon Suk tried to calm down because that one hadn’t been an easy experience, SolHi was writing screenplay after screenplay in her head, blaming everyone for the victim’s death, especially DooSan, whom she considered the main culprit for talking too much.

Eventually, seeing her immersed in thoughts, Yoon Suk told her, „You know that there wasn’t anything we could do, even if we wanted this. Yun Shi Yon…”

„Don’t mention her name!” SolHi hissed through her teeth. Yet, even if she wanted to use a sure tone, her voice was still trembling, just as her hands were shaking because, for an hour, she tried to turn the victim back to life with those hands. Something that didn’t happen eventually, forcing her to accept another death… because of her…

***

The deafening noise made by the flashing lights of the ambulance, which was heading away from the scene of the crime, made DooSan feel his head cracking. That’s why he kept staring in front as though being in a trance. A weird behavior for him because the other detectives and police officers kept moving around him, but he looked like a stone statue, incapable of feelings or any other kind of emotions. A state of mind that controlled him for a very long time, turning him into a weirdo.

Only in the end, he could control his emotions and react. At that moment, squatting and covering his face with his palms, DooSan murmured, „Did I really kill her?” Yet, he right away shook his head, denying that thought. „No, it can’t be! It wasn’t me! It was…” Thoughts that made him feel as though he lacked power.

Because of this, he eventually sat on the ground. Then, he hid his face with his arms as if he had been afraid of an attack. Even so, he spotted, only from the corner of his eyes, the moment the paramedics zipped the mortuary sack with Shi Yon’s body inside. This amazed him because he thought that the ambulance whose sound he heard before was the one that took the victim’s body. Yet, that one was only the ambulance that took Yoon Suk and SolHi to the hospital, for further investigations at Kan’s command, who was afraid that the cold water and the shock they suffered could have hurt them and he didn’t want to take the risk for something to happen to them in the end.

Thus, seeing the second ambulance leaving, the amazement seen in DooSan’s eyes suddenly turned to hatred. Something that drove him completely crazy and made him hiss through his teeth, „Aaah, Min SinJu, I swear I will kill you!” A yell that took everybody by surprise, staring at DooSan as if they'd seen a ghost eventually. Yet, even if everybody looked at him, wondering what the hell happened to him, DooSan seemed at all bothered. What mattered to him was that he’d been able to stand up after this, prepared for a new fight.

Something he had to leave for later… killing Min SinJu. It happened because of Kan, who suddenly approached DooSan. And, grabbing him by the arm, the detective dragged the prosecutor further from the others, hissing him eventually through his teeth, „I don’t know what the hell is in your mind right now, Prosecutor Han, but yelling such stupid things when there are a lot of witnesses around, I consider to be a fucking stupid idea.”

Bothered by that commentary, DooSan tried to release himself. He even said, „Detective Kan, I’m not in the mood for a lecture right now. It’s the time…”

„…to keep your mouth shut!” It was the message DooSan read in Kan’s eyes when he looked into them while trying to release his arm. Yet, what Kan told DooSan loudly was something more than that, something like, „Don’t be stupid, Prosecutor Han! Now isn’t the time to act without thinking! Moreover, to threaten someone after telling him about the witness you had, one that’s dead right now. So, if you don’t keep your mouth shut, you put everybody into trouble! Why? Because your fucking little brain doesn’t think normally right now! So, before we find another dead body because of you, do us a favor and say nothing!” What Kan wanted to say in fact was, „Don’t be stupid, Han DooSan! A quiet mouse has more chances to succeed than a cat that meows. So… keep your mouth shut, and just act!”

DooSan had right away received Kan’s message. After this, his mind started to work so fast because he finally could understand the big mistake he made. One that had consequences. Even so, it was a lesson he learned from the first, which turned him into a wiser person, one that was acting in silence, from the shadows, making everyone pay for old mistakes.

***

„She didn’t drown,” GhiYon told SolHi and DooSan when the three of them were at the morgue, in the CNS building, 5 hours after Shi Yon’s body had been taken out of the water. „Actually, she was dead when they threw her into the water. Or almost dead because, in her lungs, we found a very small quantity of liquid.”

„She was already dead? The cause?” SolHi asked in a shaking voice. Then, she looked at the woman’s body, covered with a white sheet.

„Drugs! They gave her a „cocktail” of drugs, a very strong one. And, because she was already taking a lot of pills because of the diseases she had, she had a shock and her heart stopped: simple and clean!”

„They tried to get rid of her clean, fast, and without traces,” mumbled DooSan, really impressed by the forensic doctor’s words. „Damn, and this happened because…”

„…you opened your fucking mouth. In front of whom you shouldn’t have ever opened it.”

„Ya, Ian SolHi! Don’t you think you are unfair right now?”

„Unfair? About you? Why exactly? Because I call an assassin by his name? If yes, I’m sorry, but I learned it from you.” After this, they both looked with hatred at each other. And, if their eyes had been laser eyes or sharp knives, they would have cut the other one into pieces in just seconds. More than that, SolHi’s eyes seemed something difficult to look into for a long time because, after a few moments of staring at them, DooSan felt the necessity to look elsewhere because her glance definitely told him, „If you say, even a single word more, you’re dead!”

Even so, he didn’t keep his mouth shut, but said, „Your glance… is more than perfect to kill someone.” A remark that made SolHi throw a box with medical instruments to the ground. Then… she simply walked away.

When the door closed with a slam behind her, GhiYon grabbed DooSan by the arm, forcing him to look at him while hissing through his teeth, „Are you crazy? How the hell can you tell her something like this? Or what, did you really look to take the place of the dead one on that table?”

„Don’t exaggerate, ok?!” DooSan told him calmly while staring at GhiYon’s fingers that were squeezing his arm hard. A glance that hinted GhiYon to release him, something that didn’t happen eventually because the forensic doctor seemed to have deliberately ignored it. Even so, neither DooSan did anything to release his arm even if it hurt like hell. He did nothing because he preferred that pain, he thought he deserved it after what happened that day, or maybe because it reminded him that he was still alive. Yes, he was alive, even if he blamed himself for everything that happened lately, especially with the poor woman that was lying on that cold table, to his right.

Eventually, when GhiYon released his arm, DooSan frowned and gnashed his teeth. It hurt. Like hell, it hurt because he right away rubbed the skin with his palm to calm it down. Then, when GhiYon told him, „Stop playing with the fire, Han DooSan!” he looked elsewhere because he definitely didn’t want to see his friend scolding him by his glance too, and not only through words because this was what GhiYon did. He continued to warn DooSan through words because „She’s not stupid,” he told DooSan in the end. „Yes, she’s definitely not stupid. If she entered the police, it means she knows something.”

„Or she simply tries to hide something! Yet… she wastes her time by doing this because… no matter what… I’ll find out her secret. I’ll find it out and, after that, I'll send her to jail.”

„I hope, DooSan. I really hope you’ll be able to do that, but… I’m afraid you won’t do that eventually. Not if you keep provoking her as you’ve just done, dude. And you know… this place is perfect for her to send you to the other world, allowing me to check what’s inside you, of course, turning you into another of my favorite dolls. You remember my favorite hobby, right?!”

DooSan showed him his fangs. „Yeah, I remember you love to play with the dolls as the Hunting Dog calls you generally.” GhiYon frowned. „And… even if you bite, you won’t have this pleasure… to have me as your doll, I mean. Why? Because I’m not an easy demon to kill.”

„You know: YuSan also used to say this. Yet, I had him on the same table.” GhiYon said this in a shaking voice because it wasn’t a pleasant memory at all. Then, hiding his face from DooSan, for that one not to see tears in his eyes, the forensic doctor added, „Actually, I also never thought I’d sign his death certificate, but… I had no other choice than to do it eventually. And… I really don’t want to sign yours too, DooSan! That’s why, please, think about what I said and… stay as far as possible from this woman. I don’t like her. She’s dangerous. She’s dangerous for you.”

„Trust me, I know,” said DooSan, sad. „I know this because I’ve lost a brother because of her.”

„Even so, you keep provoking her. Why?”

„Because…” DooSan kept silent so suddenly, realizing that he couldn’t tell his best friend that something made him curious about SolHi and that there was something more than simple hatred between them. More than that, he knew that if he had told GhiYon about everything that he started to feel for her lately, it would have been a big problem because his friend would have definitely considered him a maniac that loved to suffer because of the impossible.

Yet, he was lucky because GhiYon, who forgot about the question he asked when he saw Yun Shi Yon’s body, changed the subject of conversation by saying, „More than doing stupid things, what about finding the one who killed her, taking the last month of life she still had for her, huh?!”

„The last month? What the hell are you talking about?”

„Lung cancer. This is what I’m talking about. Terminally actually. Something that caused her a lot of problems and made her suffer a lot, but still something that didn’t count for that bastard. Shit, I can’t believe that he still does only what he wants, destroying others’life. And… I hope someday to be lucky and sign his death certificate too because… only this way, I’ll feel that we made justice for YuSan.”

Passing by the table where Shi Yon was lying, GhiYon said nothing more. He didn’t even look at her, feeling that this reminded him about his friend, causing him a lot of suffering at the same time. Not only him but also to DooSan, who looked straight at the dead one’s body, whom he replaced for Min SinJu’s body, the one whom he killed in his mind after chasing him on the streets for a long time, like a Hunting Dog that never gives his victims a chance to breathe.

***

„That bastard… won’t ever accept his guilt. He’s definitely a Vampire as Mina said once. One that only waits for sucking others’blood, but… hei, Han DooSan, you decided to play with the wrong person because… I’ll make you crawl after what you’ve done today. Why? Because… Shi Yon died because of you, and she definitely didn’t deserve such death.”

SolHi mumbled all this while advancing on that country road where she was at that moment. At least, it seemed to be a country road because of the stones, the dust, and the herbs grown at will all around. Something that seemed not to bother SolHi too much, who kept advancing on it without fear or feeling strange there.

Wearing an extra-large parka, a black cap, jeans, and black boots, SolHi kept walking straight without looking around. She did that because she knew that there was nothing that could get her attention because, all around that road, except the stones, the dust, and the herbs, only abandoned warehouses could be also seen. Only when she remembered that it was a perfect place for burglars and other kinds of criminals, she looked around to see if someone else was there. Yet, there were only the gray buildings of the warehouses and she, „A ghost among ghosts,” as she called herself at one moment, frowning because she disliked the strange dance of the herbs around her and the scent of mold that was insufferable, whose source she couldn’t identify.

Eventually, SolHi sneezed. She felt that sneeze deep inside her skull, something that made her shudder, even if she wasn’t afraid. Yet, when she could straighten her back again and look around, cleaning her nose with the sleeve, SolHi had the feeling that someone was following her. That’s why she winced because there, in the distance, it seemed to her to have seen a girl in white approaching her. Yes, that girl suddenly passed by her like a kind of hologram, an image that made SolHi close her eyes, dizzy, as though she had a vision.

„What’s this?” SolHi murmured, rubbing her eyes when she felt her gaze blurred. „Allergy? Again? Why? There isn’t lavender here. It can’t be because of something else because the only thing I’m allergic to is lavender. But…” Sneezing again, this time using the entire body, SolHi understood that it was definitely an allergy. It was for sure because, so suddenly, she felt itches on her nose and all over her body. That’s why, she right away looked for the inhaler when she felt itches in her throat, but… there wasn’t an inhaler in her pocket as she thought. Understanding this, SolHi cursed, „I think I’ve lost it in the taxi. Damn, exactly when I need it.”

When she realized that she lost the inhaler, SolHi frowned. Then, she turned back, looking for the taxi in the hope that it was still there. Nevertheless, she was alone there. The taxi was long ago gone, right after she came out of it. This made her curse again because „Nothing would have cost him to wait for me. Yet, he didn’t.” However, even if she was upset that the taxi driver didn’t wait for her, SolHi was aware that he was also right: he couldn’t wait for her for free and she didn’t have money to pay him for an entire hour of waiting. That's why she'd been left there alone.

Understanding this, for the umpteenth time, that she hadn’t money even to pay a taxi to wait for her, SolHi frowned again. „Well, Ian SolHi, you must accept that you are a fool eventually. You came here having no plan and telling nobody. Thus, if something happens to you here, you are dead and buried for sure, and you definitely will be a ghost. What can I tell you? You are not an idiot, but a dumb, and I hope you’ll be able to get home today. On foot because I doubt a taxi will pass by here to drive you back to Seoul, baby!”

After scolding herself with such sweet words, SolHi turned her back to the place where she left the taxi before and kept advancing on that country road. One that reminded her, for an unknown reason, of the 7 years ago events. „As though it happened here,” she mumbled eventually when she felt the anxiety squirming in her chest. „Yes, it seems that it has happened right here… that time when I ran barefoot on a stone road.” Understanding this, she shuddered inside when she felt fear sneaking into her soul. She felt that she should have turned back and left the past behind, but, being stubborn, SolHi couldn’t do that, even if she was afraid of that past as of hell.

Suddenly, too immersed in her thoughts, she didn’t notice a big stone in her way, which she stumbled upon eventually, cursing again. Then, grabbing the foot with both hands, SolHi started to jump in place, trying to chase the pain away. She even felt tears in her eyes, stubborn tears, just as she was, rolling down her cheek. Yet, she right away wiped them because she couldn’t afford herself being weak. Yes, she couldn’t, not at that moment when she found a track toward the past, something that could help her to find out the truth and why she’d been accused of murder seven years ago. A track that brought her there in the end, after she received a message from the private detective she hired for this job. „Miss Ian, we have what you are looking for,” the detective wrote in that message. „Here is the address.”

She received the message right when she walked out of the CNS building, cursing and blaming DooSan for everything that happened. A message that didn’t make her happy, but agitated inside. Yes, after reading that message, SolHi felt that her legs had been paralyzed while her heart was madly beating in her chest, something that made even her ears buzz strangely. A strange feeling that didn’t last for long because SolHi, who understood that that message wasn’t a curse, but a catapult for the future, shook her body again to chase the numbness away. After that, reading the message once again to make sure that she understood everything correctly, she murmured, „An address? But, how is this possible? How could he get it? I looked for it for seven years but to no avail. Now, however, it appeared. Why now? Why?”

She was right in asking such questions herself because she looked for evidence for 7 years but to no avail. Yes, for two years, SolHi looked for a track to the past alone, but, after she entered the Police Academy, she didn’t have enough time to do it alone. That’s why Mina recommended hiring a private detective. An idea SolHi opposed right away because it would have been necessary to spend more money, money she didn’t have at the moment.

„Money which I have,” Mina told her that day.

„Yet, I don't have it, Mina.”

„As I said, I won’t ask for it back. So, just accept it, and let’s look for that damn evidence. Otherwise, you won’t be able to live again.” SolHi shook her head in denial that day. „Why? Because it’s my money?” Mina asked her, upset.

„Yes. You already spent too much on me, Mina. You take care of my mother, of my expenses, and yours. I can’t accept to be an even bigger burden for you. I’m not shameless, ok?!”

„Nobody has ever told you that you are, SolHi! More than that, you didn’t ask me to take care of you. I decided it on myself. So, you shouldn’t have qualms of conscience because of this.”

„Yet, I have it.”

„Why? Because you feel that you are living at someone’s expense?”

„Does it seem small to you?”

„Yeah, absolutely. Why? Because you aren’t my friend, SolHi. You are like a sister to me. One that I’m more than able to take care of, one I’m sure that will stand up again one day and will do the same for me if something like this or even worse will happen to me. Or… am I wrong in thinking so?”

After such words, SolHi couldn’t say anything else or oppose that idea. After all, Mina was right. They were more than best friends, they treated each other like sisters, and it was right for them to take care of each other while one of them was in trouble. Thus, even if it burnt her inside, SolHi accepted that money with the condition that she’d pay it back as soon as she’d had the chance to do that. After that, they hired that detective, in the hope that he’d find evidence soon. Nevertheless, even if the detective was one of the best, even he needed five years to find a track to that past.

After she remembered the past events and that Mina helped her so much, SolHi felt her eyes in tears again. Tears that she wiped right away to be able to look around. Yes, she wanted to look at that place very carefully in the hope that she’d remember something about that day. She wanted so badly to remember something because, if this had happened, she would have been able to prove to everybody that they’d been wrong about her and that she wasn’t the monster everybody told her she was all those years.

She came there in the hope that she’d find evidence and she’d be able to walk proudly on the streets again. She wanted people to leave watching her with hatred while seeing her in the street, she wanted not to hear any more „assassin” hissed through the teeth by those who didn’t know her, she wanted to be free again… free of the past, of guilt, and of remorse. Yet, coming there, she felt disappointed again because there seemed to be a place not perfect to help her remember something. All that was there were herbs, stones, dust, and abandoned warehouses, nothing like what she remembered. „And no soul that could have been here that night and could have told me what happened then."

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Yet, suddenly, when she thought that she was a single ghost in a sea of solitude, SolHi heard a man’s voice in the distance, who said, „They said they’d been here about 9 o’clock.”

Hearing that voice, SolHi winced. „What the hell happens here?” She wondered. Then, understanding that she could have found the nest of a criminal organization or something like this, she started to sneak toward the place where she heard the voice, convinced to see what was going on there. She was right in thinking so because, after about 50 meters of sneaking by those tall herbs, SolHi had been able to see a group of five men walking out of one of the warehouses, which she considered completely abandoned.

Seeing them coming straight toward her, SolHi’s first thought had been to hide. Yet, curiosity won against her survival instinct and she decided to stay. She even had the „genius” idea of approaching that place more and taking a picture of those men. Yet, when she’d been close enough, squatted, and took the phone out of her pocket to take that photo, she felt the hand of a strong man grabbing her arm and dragging her toward the hide-out of those tall herbs, where it seemed he had stood hidden by that moment.

It happened so fast that SolHi didn’t even have time to react. Only when she felt that man’s palm covering her mouth, she started to shudder, looking at him with wide-open eyes. She even felt the necessity to scream, asking for help when she felt his chest touching her chest, and their hearts madly beating inside them.

Namely, the heartbeat of that man has made SolHi attentive. It seemed familiar to her, even if she didn’t know why. That’s why she let the thought about screaming for help for later and focused her gaze on the man above her. Thus, when she’d finally been able to see something through the darkness, she could recognize DooSan’s silhouette. She even saw him making her desperate signs to keep her mouth shut, pointing with his head to his right. Looking over there, SolHi could see, through the blades of the tall grass, a group of men heading toward them. So, seeing them, she finally understood why DooSan decided to drag her into the hide-out of those tall herbs: he wanted to protect her. Something that was damn weird for her because she knew he hated her so badly. It would have been perfect for him to allow those men to find her there and get rid of her because it would have happened for sure if not because of DooSan.

Seeing him there, SolHi frowned. „What is he doing here?” She started to wonder. „Why the hell is he here? More than that, why did he save me? And why does my heart beat so fast while I feel him next to me? And… why do I feel that I like his smell, his heartbeats, and feel his breath dancing on my skin?”

All these questions made SolHi swallow hard eventually. Moreover, she felt how her breath stopped in her throat, just like her heart stopped for seconds when DooSan lay on her completely the moment the group of men passed by them. He did that trying not to be seen by those men. Yet, SolHi considered this weird. And, for the first time since she knew Han DooSan, she realized that she felt something more for him than hatred.

How could this be different when she felt his heartbeats so pleasantly on her chest? It was damn pleasant to feel his cheek touching her cheek too. Her skin touching his skin was something to drive her crazy, something that made her suddenly slowly shudder in his arms. She felt that that shaking wasn’t because of fear. It was a desire, she was sure of that. One she never thought she’d be ever capable to feel, but still something she felt at that moment when she closed her eyes.

Immersed in a world only hers, a world where both of them rhythmically breathed at the same time, almost touching each other, almost completing each other while a sweet feeling was warming them inside, SolHi touched Heaven. It was really strange for her to feel all this. They were enemies, they should have hated each other to death instead of feeling this. Yet, she felt it. How was this possible? How could she feel something so pleasantly for a man she considered her rival and enemy? It was impossible. It was insane. Still… it was so real, she felt it on her skin… a sweet pulsation of his skin that made her dream about the impossible.

Even so, even if she knew that was impossible, she wanted that moment to last forever. She wanted this because, for the first time in a very long time, she felt to be a woman and not a monster. Yet, it lasted less than she wanted, until the moment the five men walked away and they were safe. At that moment, DooSan grabbed her hand, forced her to stand up, and follow him… in silence.

***

Running her hands through her hair, combing it this way, SolHi managed to arrange it a little. She did that to make it look presentable after she took the cap off, which made her look very untidy. Yet, even if she thought that she did that to comb her hair a little, she was just trying to chase the awkwardness away from her chest, something that made her feel uncomfortable next to DooSan. Moreover, after everything she felt when they stood hidden in that land of herbs.

The man next to her, who was behind the wheel, seemed to feel the same. He said nothing since he stopped the car on that country road between two fields. And, even if that situation seemed to be a romantic one, it was only strange in fact, something that made SolHi smile eventually.

Spotting her smile, DooSan looked thunderstruck at her. He definitely couldn’t understand how the crazy woman, who was in the same car as him at that moment, had been able to come alone to an unknown and dangerous place at that late hour of the night. Moreover, he couldn’t understand how she could smile because she’d been only one step from death that night. Yet, she smiled and he was unable to understand her.

Thinking so, DooSan was wrong because SolHi didn’t smile because she was there. She smiled because she saw that they wore similar parkas, jeans, and caps of the same black color and brand, a cap, which DooSan still had on his head. „As though we are a couple,” she mumbled eventually.

„What?” He murmured even more surprised than before.

SolHi, instead of answering that question, repeating what she said, preferred to ask „Why are you actually here, Han DooSan?” just not to be forced to give explanations about her thoughts.

DooSan responded to her with another question, „Should I answer this right now?”

„Yeah, absolutely because I’m damn curious about why you are here. More than that, it’s suspicious because I don’t remember having told someone that I’m here. So, don’t tell me: stalker?”

„And I don’t remember you to be a superstar for me to stalk you. So, don’t be stupid, ok?! If I’m here it’s because I have things to do. More important things than following you.”

„Really? Why didn’t it sound so convincing? Is it because of what happened five years ago? You remember this too, right?! The Police Academy… you at the entrance… the words you told me then. What was it? Aaa, „You are the most important person in my life, Ian SolHi.” Or… did you forget this already?”

„As though this is something I can forget,” said DooSan, smiling. Yet, he smiled to hide that he felt awkward too with that question. „And you are right,” he suddenly said. „You are definitely the most important person in my life… my worst enemy. So, Detective Ian, as I’m a good Samaritan, I’ll tell you something more to be clear for you for your entire life: what I said then was exactly this „You’ll be the person I’ll hate for an entire life and I won’t ever have peace until crushing you under my feet like the beetle you are. Only then, I’ll feel that you have definitely been the most important person in my life, whom I’ve sent to death.”

„Aaa, this was what you said then,” said SolHi in a slightly mockery tone. „Well, you have now the perfect chance to fulfill that dream.” DooSan looked at her with pumped eyes. „I mean this place: it’s perfect for crime. No witnesses, no cameras, no evidence. So, if someone finds me after this, dead I mean, nobody will ever suspect you as being who has gotten rid of me. That’s why, I suggest you try it now: to crush me as the beetle I am. What you say: a perfect idea, right?”

„A genius one actually. Just as you are perfect to plan such things. Crimes, I mean,” said DooSan, clapping. „Yet, as I’m not you, what I suggest is to keep your perfect ideas only for you. I’m different, ok?! I’m not doing things secretly. I prefer to kill someone in front of everybody, slowly but painfully, and not in such hidden places like you prefer to kill. As you did once, actually.”

„Touché!!!” Murmured SolHi, grinning. Yet, even if she tried to be calm, she wasn’t. Why? The man next to her was right: that place was exactly like that one where she’d been attacked seven years ago, one where Han YuSan had been found after being murdered. The only difference was that SolHi knew all this while DooSan seemed not to know it yet. If he had known this or if he had been able to read her mind at that moment, he would have had a damn good advantage in front of her.

Aware of this, SolHi said, surprising both of them because she never thought that she was capable of saying such things, „Don’t worry, Han DooSan, you’ll have this chance! To get rid of me in front of everybody, one day! And that day can be closer than ever!” Saying this, SolHi kept silent and looked through the window from her right. Her eyes were teary, but she didn’t wipe them as she would have done in the past. Those tears were stubborn and made her eyeballs pulsate because her mind impeded them to run down her cheeks, releasing her soul from the chains of the past this way.

Because of this, she felt she was going crazy. Her heart was beating fast and her breath felt accelerated. Something that made her murmur eventually in her head, „I can’t breathe! I lack air! Why?” After that, she felt the necessity to touch her chest with her palm. Yet, she didn’t do this eventually because DooSan was there. She didn’t want to let him know that he won in front of her. She just preferred to look dumbly through the window, at the vastness of those fields that seemed like giants in her eyes, giants swinging on their tiny bodies, made from black blades of lavender, slowly rocked by the air.

Spotting the headlights of a car approaching their car, SolHi winced. It seemed weird to her to see another vehicle in that place that seemed forgotten even by God. Yet, something more than this started to spin in her head so suddenly, „If someone sees us here, thus, it’ll look suspicious. We’ll be dead for sure. I must do something. But… what?” And the only thought that right away came into her mind and seemed perfect to save them both was… love.

Yes, if someone had found them there in tender poses wouldn’t have been suspicious. Yet, they weren’t lovers. Even their position in the car, so far away from each other, would have given others the feeling that they were there to hide something. A position she decided to change, suddenly sitting on DooSan’s lap, taking him by surprise eventually.

The moment she sat on his lap, DooSan winced. Then, when he saw her taking her parka off, DooSan swallowed hard. Moreover, when he spotted the form of her sexy breasts, outlining through the material of her white shirt. This turned things hot. It happened the moment she put her lips so close to his. Their cheeks almost touched each other, just as it happened to their chests. Yet, the moment SolHi wrapped her arms around his neck, DooSan had surprised a hiccup stopped half through his chest. This caused him a little bit of pain, but still a pleasant one. Moreover, when she gently took the cap off his head and threw it on the back seat. This made him wince again.

Unlike him, who seemed so overwhelmed and thunderstruck by all she did, SolHi seemed pretty calm. She, with lazy movements, caressed his hair, and, approaching the lips of his left ear, she told him, „Don’t move! We have witnesses!”

Hearing her whisper, DooSan looked past her shoulder, finally spotting the car stopped in front of their vehicle. Yet, it wasn’t the only danger lurking on them because, with quick steps, he saw two men approaching their car. This made DooSan’s heart madly beat in his chest, a pleasant adrenaline he wasn’t that sure that it was only because of the two men approaching or because of the woman that was sitting on his lap, in a sexy position. And, thinking of this, feeling he had to do something more than stay still and look like a dumb through the window, moreover, when he felt the pleasant scent of her skin, DooSan closed the doors of his mind. Then he wrapped his arms around her body, approached her more of his chest, practically sticking her breasts from his chest, while his lips were hungrily looking for hers.

Feeling his arms wrapped around her body, SolHi winced. She felt that she lacked air the moment their chests touched each other. A pleasant buzzing was heard in her ears… something strange… something secret at the same time… magic maybe, alluringly, like a sweet calling of two hearts that longed for each other for a very long time. It was a secret calling to desire, of two bodies dancing one next to the other one, of two souls, naked of feelings while their skin, sweat and hot, was urging them to completion. It urged them to join a Yin and Yang that hated each other for so long, avoiding the other one when they simply wanted to be together, in a closed space, a car in their case, the perfect place for love.

Their desire culminated in a kiss when their lips touched each other. It was the man’s desire to complete that painting of love. A desire in the form of a hot kiss… a passionate kiss when madness, the one he never considered himself capable of, broke the chains of logic and allowed the hunger of his soul to dominate him. At the same time, their approach was calming him down, as though it was what he looked for all those years. It seemed as though it was something he lived before, but what he had forgotten, a moment both longed for, but didn’t remember.

Because of this, they both lost themselves completely in that kiss. In a world that lacked air and logic. Only their lips were thinking at that moment while touching the other one’s lips, so magically their arms were working while hugging the other one. They approached more and more as though they wanted to become one… soon… very soon… to complement each other, forgetting about everything.

It led their passion to perfection. It turned so intense the moment their brains stopped thinking. It looked as though, aware that they weren’t alone there, was urging them to want more. Yes, they seemed not to care about those intruders that lurked on them through the closed window. They didn’t care about being interrupted because DooSan took care to lock the doors before kissing her. Thus, when the intruders saw what happened in the car, both smiled, but only one of them said, „Let’s go! Hormones!” And he said that the moment he spotted DooSan's hand slipping under SolHi’s shirt, a touch that made the woman in his lap vibrate, a sweet shudder that urged him to look for more.

Soon after this, the second car left that place, leaving them alone, along with their madness. A madness that seemed not to end very soon. They left two enemies inside of a car, looking for perfection, in a secret ritual of love in a place where they could be alone, they and the night, the only witness of their sinner love… with no obstacles… with no regrets… only desire.

Yet… DooSan had broken the magic so suddenly when he grabbed her by the throat and hardly squeezed it. Then, looking straight into her eyes that looked at him with terror, the man hissed through his teeth, „Did you really think that by seducing me, you’d make me forget everything?”

SolHi said nothing, even if she heard that question. She did nothing to prevent the man from suffocating her. She allowed him to do that, with all the power he was capable of at that moment. Why? Simply because she couldn’t do that. She lacked the power to fight… what happened between them had been so intense that she didn’t want to destroy it with fights. SolHi only preferred to look into his eyes and allow his madness to end with everything. She even told him at one moment, barely whispering the words because of his fingers that were squeezing her throat, „If this should end here, then let it end here.” Then, touching the man’s hands, she seemed to help him squeeze it more and more.

Feeling her hands touching his, DooSan winced. Yet, he wasn’t ready to give up on his madness. He wasn’t ready to let her go when that place was definitely perfect for a crime as SolHi mentioned. A place that was also perfect for love, just as it happened seconds ago. Something he suddenly felt that he wanted to continue. Yet, while his reason started to yell at him not to do that, DooSan decided to listen to it. That’s why he suddenly opened the door, dragged SolHi out of that car, and, pushing her hard against the vehicle, kept pressing on her throat while looking at her with the eyes of the beast that awakened inside him.

Yes, his eyes definitely looked like the eyes of the devil at that moment. They were the eyes of the beast that finally awakened inside him the moment he put his hands on the victim that ran from him for so long. Then, in an uncontrolled delirium, DooSan murmured, „You will never escape from me, Ian SolHi! You’ll never survive after meeting me.” Phrases, which he whispered over and over again as though trying to force SolHi to remember them.

„I’m sorry!” SolHi suddenly murmured with eyes bathed by tears.

A murmur that didn’t calm DooSan, but seemed to have driven him more crazy than he already was because he suddenly yelled at her, „You are a nobody. A piece of… a criminal, who doesn’t desire to breathe. You don’t deserve to live in this world for sure, not after all you’ve done to me. That’s why your life ends here, Ian SolHi. In my hands because… seducing me has been the worst decision you could have ever made. Or what? Did you really think that I’m so weak to fall into your arms and let you go? Did you really think that having sex with me will wash the sins from your soul? Of course not. This would have convinced me only that you deserve to die, you, piece of trash. One that must be trampled under feet.”

Yelling this, his voice was heard everywhere. A yell that made his hands press more and more his victim’s throat. He definitely didn’t see or hear anything at that moment. All that he lived at that moment was the hatred from his heart, one that he oppressed for too long, years of suffering in fact when he dreamt about something similar so many times. He looked for revenge at that moment. He looked for this while looking into her eyes, into the eyes of the woman that did nothing to fight against his madness, even if she suffered the same or maybe more than he suffered. Yet, it didn’t count for Han DooSan at all.

Eventually, his madness had been stopped by his reason when he heard in his head, „What are you doing, Han DooSan? Stop it!” He heard the voice of his brother at that moment, a voice that forced him to let SolHi free.

Let free, SolHi fell on the ground. She started to shake with all her body while coughing to regain her normal breath. A cough DooSan didn’t hear. He was too thunderstruck staring at his hands that were badly shaking, the same hands he had used to try to kill her seven years ago in Intensive Care. Yet, not his hands he was seeing at that moment, but her hands. Those powerless hands that were resting on his after he did what he did at the Intensive Care. This made him cry. This made his breath accelerate, yelling in his head that he wanted everything to stop.

In the end, he simply ran away. He entered his car, pressed the gas pedal to the brim, and left, leaving SolHi alone on that country road, sitting on the ground, touching her chest with both palms while trying to recover her normal breath. Her eyes, however, looked after that vehicle that was moving away from her, like her past that was so far away from her and so close at the same time. And… she started to cry again… with mute tears… understanding that it wasn’t over yet.

***

Barefoot because she felt the necessity to take her shoes off, boots she left on that country road, SolHi kept advancing through that lavender field. A field that was full of purple flowers, with a strong odor. A pleasant scent for many people, which could have been deadly for her at that moment when she didn’t have her inhaler with her. Because of this, so suddenly, SolHi started to feel she lacked power. It wasn’t something random. She felt it before. Actually, she started to feel all this after she’d been left on that road between the two fields of lavender, looking as though she was in a trance.

Because of this, she entered the lavender field, even if she felt pain in her chest and that she had a hissing breath. She headed there after she saw something in the distance. Yes, it seemed to her that it was something in the middle of that lavender field, a known place, one she should get to at any cost, even if she had gotten there dead.

Yet, it didn’t count for her: either that she could die because of lavender or that it was an unknown place and she was alone there. She preferred to go despite all the warnings her heart and her mind were sending to her. She simply wanted to go there. She wanted to see what was there and why it was so alluring to her… that place, which she saw in the distance and which seemed to be the gray walls of an abandoned warehouse.

Actually, when SolHi spotted that gray silhouette in the distance, her first thought had been that „Something reminds me about me here. It reminds me about that time… about 7 years ago when that nightmare had happened.” Thoughts that filled her eyes with tears again, making her feel that she lacked air more than before.

Yet, being stubborn, she managed to get there eventually. She stopped right in front of the door of that abandoned warehouse, one that it seemed to her that had had a metallic door once. Then… the moment she heard a shout… SolHi winced. It was the scream of a woman, she was sure of this. A so familiar scream it was, even if she didn’t know who that woman could be.

Even so, even if she wasn’t sure of anything, SolHi finally walked into the warehouse. It was dark all over there. Yet, she kept advancing as though she knew that place so well. It seemed to her that she’d been there once. It was because of the scent of mold and lavender. It was so familiar to her, all that, and it couldn’t be a simple coincidence. Just as she couldn’t have just imagined the image of the woman in a white dress running out of that warehouse, passing by her without looking at her. A woman she saw abused by a maniac, on the first floor of that warehouse… a maniac that hurt her body, her skin, and her soul, making her feel sick, but who hadn’t been able to take her will.

Looking at that image, that seemed to be a vision, SolHi tried to see the face of that devil. Yet, she couldn’t. Even so, she felt his touches so well on her skin as though she was the young woman from her vision, a woman she saw crying, asking for mercy, a vision that made SolHi burst into a cry too.

Then, suddenly, wiping her tears, SolHi turned her back to that image of the abused woman and headed toward the stairs, which she right away started to climb. Yet, it had been worse than seeing that woman crying. Why? Simply because she saw the same woman on the second floor… the same woman in a white dress, crouched on the floor, brutally kicked on her stomach, over and over again.

Yes, SolHi saw those images so clearly. She saw the woman trying to protect her belly. She saw her yelling at that maniac but didn’t hear her words. Even so, SolHi felt scared. She felt the same fear that the woman felt. This made her withdraw… step by step moving back, toward that big black hole seen in the middle of the floor.

One more step… and one more… and another one. Her heel touched the edge of the hole from behind her. A touch that made SolHi close her eyes, and stretch her arms aside, deeply feeling the calmness inside. One that yelled at her to be submissive. A silence that told SolHi that it was time to end everything… madness… pain… sufferance by simply letting her fall through that hole.